This volume contains the proceedings of the Second Dharma Association of
North America (DANAM) Conference, held at the site of the American Academy of Religion (AAR), in San Antonio, Texas, USA, 19–21 November 2004. The
meeting, at which twenty-four Symposium and Panel papers and presentations
were given, was attended by scholars from North America, Europe, UK,
Africa, and India. Complete texts of eighteen papers are included in this
volume.

One of the primary aims of the DANAM annual conference was to provide
a forum where the academic examination of the Dharma Traditions and
contemporary issues central to the life and practice of these traditions
can be informed by constructive hermeneutics. A
secondary objective was openness to a discussion of the
hermeneutical, epistemological, and pedagogicalconcerns
and conflicts that impact scholarship in these traditions. Such
discussions are still rather rare in the study of the DharmaTraditions.

DANAM's
mission includes the creation of a venue for collective engagement among
scholars of the Dharma traditions, for mutual interaction and enrichment,
to help initiate a reclamation of the historic relationship of
intellectual cross-fertilization, dialogue, and sharing of thought and
practices—while honoring the important differences— among these
traditions.